Kollam Gangi Reddy, the prime accused in the red sanders cases, who is currently detained in Mauritius after being arrested by Interpol in February, is in the most wanted list of the Kadapa police.
SP Naveen Gulati said Gangi Reddy is carrying eight criminal cases against him, including non-bailable ones, at various police stations in Kadapa. Regarding Gangi Reddy's extradition process, the SP said: “The matter is being pursued by the headquarters team in Hyderabad. As he is carrying eight cases of red sanders smuggling, we have to get him here. Apart from red sanders cases, he is wanted in other criminal cases too.”
Additional SP (Red sanders operations - Chittoor district) V. Ratna said Gangi Reddy is not in the police records of the district. "We have thoroughly verified our records to ascertain if he is carrying any criminal cases against him (in Chittoor district), and found none,” she said.
Gangi Reddy’s name has become synonymous with red sanders smuggling network in Prakasam, Nellore and Rayalaseema districts, which hold the endemic presence of the red sanders species. Apart from red sanders cases against him, name of Gangi Reddy, a native of Vathuluru in Pullampeta Mandal of Kadapa district, also figured prominently in areas of illicit liquor business.
He further carries criminal cases pertaining to rape and murder.
Though, sought by the Rayalaseema police since more than a decade, Gangi Reddy's name shot into limelight all of a sudden when the Chief Minster N. Chandrababu Naidu himself (immediately after winning the assembly elections in May 2014) met the Governor and seeking his (Gangi Reddy's) arrest. Reddy’s name was widely involved in the Maoists’ engineered Alipiri blast at Tirumala foothills in 2003, in which Mr. Naidu had a narrow escape. Further, Reddy is wanted in cases of terrorizing the rural side in Kadapa district in 1987.
Given a lifer in a murder case in 1992, Gangi Reddy was involved in an attempt to murder case in Hyderabad. He was said to have entered the clandestine smuggling trade in 2002. Soon, he could establish contacts with some of the notorious smugglers based in Dubai, including one Sahul Hameed of Chennai. He was known to have opened the new sea routes to carry out the smuggling of red sanders overseas.
He is also facing serious allegations of amassing assets to the tune of hundreds of crores in AP, TN and Karnataka, besides bribing the forest and police officials with posh buildings, foreign jaunts and wades of currency notes.
